Happy Halloween!

 

 

October Breeeak!

 

 

 

 

We spent half of our October break in, wait for it... Farmington NM! We got the strangest looks from people when we would tell them that was where we were going on vacation. It is not a typical destination place but we were excited to go see Stephanie and Travis' new home! The boys were more excited to see their long lost cousins.

 

 

Before getting in the car I made the boys run up and down the street to get their energy out. Thanks for the tip, mom!

 

 

 

 

We went to the Farmington kids museum where all 6 boys (Lane, Rusty, Collin, Weston, Craig and Casey:) played to their hearts content. Travis had to work or else I am sure he would have been in on the exhibits, too. 

These boys played from sun up to sun down. They have an awesome big backyard and in 60 degree weather why would anyone go inside? I can only dream of a big spacious backyard some day. Group baths is also a must.

Stephanie even got a sitter so the adults could go out to dinner in peace.

The next day was spent in Durango CO! It is only 45 minutes away from Farmington! We hopped aboard the Charlie Browns Great Pumpkin Express. We rode 30 minutes where they dropped us off at the pumpkin patch where we spent almost 2 hours doing all of the festivities. Can we say a kids dream come true!

We got to take home 2 souvenir pumpkins. Rusty had a hard time trying to find the perfect one for him.

I think I might make this for my own house. It is a pool full of corn kernels. A few kernels even made it home with us. They could have played in that thing for hours!

Back to the train depot.

We enjoyed the rest of the day in down town Durango walking into the shops. And riding horse statues.

And getting treats at the Rocky Mountain chocolate store.

And getting thrown into the big blow up Jack-O-Lantern.

 

 

It was such a fun trip. Farmington is actually not all that bad! Of course visiting family makes it better. I loved all of our late night chats. Stephanie making brownies from scratch at 9pm. Not having to break up fights from the boys for days because they were truly entertained by the company around them. It was all great!!

Getting our FALL on

 

 

It is hard to believe that fall is here. Even if we are still swimming . I hear that it should be cooling down soon. I will believe it when I feel it.

 

 Lane asks every day if Halloween is tomorrow. Nope, not quite yet. They both change what costume they want to be on a daily basis. Due to that I will be going to Party City 4 days before October 31st. Not too close to the Halloween Eve crowd but close enough to where they still have things in stock.  Then they can choose if they want to be Spiderman or Batman or the Green Lantern... or a ninja or a skeloton. Pretty sure Rusty will choose what Lane picks. That seems to be the common trend at our home right now.

 

 

I thought it would be fun to have a special Halloween after school snack. It was hard to choose which spooky donut they wanted so I solved the problem. One dozen, please! I liked the pumpkin spice donut the best. I would know because I tried all 4 of the seasonal specials. And when I say "tried" I don't mean one bit. Like more than half of the darn thing.  The jack-o-lantern glaze came in a close second. 

 

 

 

 I felt like a good mom with a plan for once and came home from our festive treat to decorate the tree all Halloween-y. The boys were way diggin it. I never let them help decorate. It drives me nuts. I also very not like (trying not to use the word hate) when they want to help me in the kitchen. When other moms say it is one of their favorite things to do with their kids I know they are lying. So point given, they were very proud of their tree and I'm pretty sure it was arranged about 20 different times throughout the evening.

I never have anything cute outside of my front door so I made this wreath. It didn't turn out exactly how I pictured but oh well. It will only be out there for 2 months anyway.

The big K

Lane started KINDERGARTEN this year! Leave it to me to blog about it a month later. He had been waiting all summer long for this. Seriously. The best part is that uncle Craig is in 6th grade at the same school! That has got to be a weird feeling for my mom. 

We went to meet the teacher the day before where he got to find his desk and color a picture about himself. Can you tell he loves to pose for pictures?

The big day has arrived! He was dressed and ready to go the second he hopped out of bed. Too bad he had to wait a few more hours since he goes to afternoon, half day Kindergarten.

 
He teared up when I walked him to his classroom but his teacher said he stopped the second he sat down. It has been smooth sailing ever since.

And this is how I find Rusty while Lane is gone. Enjoying his alone time with free reins of the remote!

Last Half Of July



I turned 29 (insert mid life crisis). I told Casey that for my thirtieth I will  need to be in a "happy" place, literally, or else I might just be on the floor all day long. I said Hawaii might do the trick.

I did have a great birthday! The boys surprised me with a mint chocolate chip ice cream cake from Pets n Robins. Which really is Baskin Robins. That's what Lane calls it for some reason. Then they were off to play with cousins all day while Casey and I spent some quality quiet, NO KIDS time together.

We went to Oceanside CA! It's funny how we go to the same place every year but each trip brings different fun, new things.

My mom, the social bug that she is, meet this older couple at church and started to chat and the next thing we know we were invited over to their beach mansion for waffles with some of their married kids. It was a hoot. I don't have any pictures (didn't want to seem like tourists) but it was amazing. I think our parents are life long friends now, ha!

Harbor Fish n chips

Many, many hours on the beach! Lane is a pro boogie boarder.

Jefferson's friend Ryker came with us as well as Griffen, Craigs friend.

This is probably our 20th trip to Sea World...and it never gets old!

However, I do not do the rides. Because you get soaked. I hate being wet and damp all day. Worst feeling in the world. So I take the pictures. I love how Stephanie has no idea what's about to hit them. She is waving happily at the camera while my dad spots Casey at the water gun machine with a pocket full of quarters. Yep that's right Jefferson, you know exactly what's about to go down.

SOAK CITY! I love that Griffen thinks the wet-er the better.

until the ride ends.

and the sun starts to go down and in California it is chilly at night.

but our little family stayed dry and warm.

More beach time!

the second Rusty would get wet he would strip naked until his suit dried out then he would put it back on. That was his constant cycle all week. Needless to say his bum line isn't so contrast anymore:)

Pizza on the beach for the last night.

Farewell meal at Phil's before the drive home.

It was a great trip as always!